Rule processing method and apparatus providing automatic user input selection

Abstract

An improvement in decision automation employing a ZDD rule model indicative of a business or engineering rule to provide decision support to a user. The computer-implemented improvement automatically identifies compliant inputs for the rule processing system according to at least one input initially supplied by a user, and is particularly useful for determining product configuration, engineering designs, various outcome of planning scenarios, etc. Once a user selects an initial value(s), remaining compliant values unique to the user-selected value(s) are automatically identified. The improvement reduces time required to manually select inputs. In one embodiment, the improvement includes an I/O interface to enable the user to choose and observe inputs, an autoselect ZDD constructed from compliant inputs of the rule model, and a ZDD processing module that processes said autoselect ZDD in order to provide for the user a set compliant inputs for the ZDD rule model according to the user input. The automatic input selection routine may be executed at decision automation runtime, or executed and stored a priori for subsequent processing during runtime.

1 . In a computer-implemented rule processing system utilizing a ZDD representation of a rule that responds to user inputs to provide advice that guides a user to achieve compliancy of said rule, an improvement comprising:
 an autoselect system implemented with said rule processing system to identify a set of compliant inputs of said rule based on at least one user input selected by said user, said autoselect system including a user interface to enable the user to select said at least one user input and a processor to automatically generate and indicate to said user other compliant inputs of said set based on said at least one user input.   
     
     
         2 . The improvement of  claim 1 , wherein said inputs comprises enumerations of attributes of a business or engineering rule. 
     
     
         3 . The improvement of  claim 2 , wherein said autoselect system builds an autoselect ZDD based on compliant inputs of said rule and processes the autoselect ZDD to produce set of compliant selections for said inputs. 
     
     
         4 . The improvement of  claim 3 , wherein said autoselect system separately builds an autoselect Include ZDD and an autoselect Exclude ZDD to represent said autoselect ZDD. 
     
     
         5 . The improvement of  claim 4 , wherein said autoselect system reorders nodes of said autoselect Include ZDD and autoselect Exclude ZDD to reduce the complexity thereof. 
     
     
         6 . The improvement of  claim 5 , wherein nodes of said ZDDs have respective index numbers associated with said attributes and enumerations thereof and said autoselect system aligns the indices of respective nodes of said autoselect Include and autoselect Exclude ZDDs to facilitate processing. 
     
     
         7 . The improvement of  claim 6 , wherein said autoselect system builds and stores the autoselect ZDD during rule packaging whereby to reduce processing time during execution of said rule processing system. 
     
     
         8 . The improvement of  claim 6 , wherein said autoselect system builds the autoselect ZDD on-the-fly during runtime of said computer-implemented rule processing system. 
     
     
         9 . In a computer-implemented rule processing system utilizing a ZDD rule model that responds to selection of enumerations of attributes in order to provide selection advice to a user for achieving compliancy of said rule model, an improvement comprising:
 an autoselect system implemented with said rule processing system to provide additional compliant selections based on at least one initial input enumeration of said user, said autoselect system including a user interface to enable the user to select said initial input enumeration; an autoselect ZDD constructed from compliant enumerations of said rule model; and a processing module responsive to said initial input enumeration of said user to automatically provide said additional compliant selections of enumerations.   
     
     
         10 . The improvement of  claim 9 , wherein said processing module divides said autoselect ZDD into an autoselect Include ZDD and an autoselect Exclude ZDD prior to automatically providing said user with additional compliant selections. 
     
     
         11 . In combination with a rule processing system employing a ZDD rule model indicative of a business or engineering rule to provide decision support to a user, a computer-implemented system to automatically identify compliant inputs for the rule processing system according to at least one user input, said computer-implemented system comprising:
 an I/O interface to enable the user to choose and observe inputs,   an autoselect ZDD constructed from compliant inputs of said rule model, and   a ZDD processing module that processes said autoselect ZDD in order to provide for the user a set compliant inputs for said ZDD rule model according to said at least one user input.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented system of  claim 11 , wherein said processing module enables the user to change an initial user input and, in response thereto, provides alternative compliant inputs based on a change in said initial user input. 
     
     
         13 . A computer-implemented rule processing system to determine satisfiability of a business or engineering rule represented by a zero-suppressed binary decision diagram (ZDD) rule model, said system comprising:
 an execution module to indicate compliancy of said rule according to selection of attributes and enumerations values for said attributes,   an autoselect module that provides automatic selection of enumeration values based on selection of an initial value for at least one enumeration,   a user interface to enable a user to select a value for at least one enumeration, and   a processing module to determine compliant enumeration values for other attributes according to the enumeration value selected by said user and to provide said compliant enumeration values of said other attributes to said user.   
     
     
         14 . The computer-implement system of  claim 13 , wherein said processing module iteratively enables said user to select an alternative enumeration value whereby, in response, said processing module determines and identifies other compliant enumeration values based on said alternative enumeration value selected by said user. 
     
     
         15 . In a computer-implemented rule processing method to determine satisfiability of a ZDD representation of a business or engineering rule, a method of providing a set of compliant enumeration values for respective attributes of said rule comprising:
 obtaining a user selection of at least one enumeration value of an attribute,   determining a set of compliant enumeration values of other attributes according to said user selection,   providing a complete set of compliant enumeration values to said user, and   iteratively enabling said user to select other enumeration values whereby to provide further complete sets of compliant enumeration values to said user.   
     
     
         16 . In a computer-implemented method of rule processing utilizing a zero-suppressed binary decision diagram (ZDD) to provide decision support, a method of automatically providing a user with additional compliant inputs based on at least one user input supplied by said user, said method comprising:
 providing a user interface to indicate possible inputs to the ZDD,   enabling the user to enter at least one input,   in response to an input entered by said user, generating a set of additional inputs that are compliant with each other and compliant with said input entered by said user, and   indicating the set of additional compliant inputs to said user.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising providing inputs in the form of attributes and enumeration values of said attributes. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein said generating step includes building an autoselect ZDD based on compliant inputs of a ZDD rule and processing the autoselect ZDD to produce a complete set of compliant inputs to the ZDD rule according to said at least one input entered by said user. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said generating step further includes separately building an autoselect Include ZDD and an autoselect Exclude ZDD to represent said autoselect ZDD whereby to facilitate ZDD manipulation. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the separately building step includes reordering nodes of said autoselect Include and autoselect Exclude ZDDs to reduce the number of nodes and complexity thereof. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein nodes of the ZDDs have respective index numbers associated with said attributes and enumeration values thereof and said separately building step includes aligning the indices of the respective nodes of said autoselect Include and autoselect Exclude ZDDs to facility ZDD manipulations. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising separately building and storing the autoselect ZDD during rule packaging whereby to reduce processing time during execution of said rule processing system. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising separately building and storing said autoselect ZDD on-the-fly during runtime of said computer-implemented rule method. 
     
     
         24 . A computer readable medium to effect automatic identification of inputs during automated rule processing of a ZDD rule by a data processing system, said medium comprising program instructions to effect display on a graphical user interface of selectable inputs for the ZDD rule, to effect selection by said user of at least one input, to build an autoselect ZDD from compliant inputs of said ZDD rule, to generate a set of compliant inputs based on an input selected by said user, and to indicate to said user said set of compliant inputs according to an input selected by said user.